Hungarian Grammar for Beginners

Tag Archives: postpositions

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ATTENTION! How? corresponds with the Hungarian word only if you express mode, condition,NEVER PROPERTY OR QUALITY. Of course, there are exceptions:

How was your day? – Milyen napod volt?

If the question word How? requires a specific quality as an answer, one says: Milyen?

But now we’re interested in Hogy? Examples:

Hogy vagy? – How are you?Hogy jöttél ide? – How did you come here?Hogy megy a munka? – How is your work going?

There’s a longer version of this word: Hogyan? No difference between the two forms, but the short version is more in use.

The answers to the question could be: jól – fine; gyalog – on foot; lassan – slowly. These words are adverbs of manner. The possibilities to form them are quite a few! Besides, there are adverbs of manner representing this part of the speech by themselves (gyalog). Standard English adverbs of manner are formed from adjectives with the ending –ly: happily, mainly, and so on…

Hungarian adverbs of manner have a crucial part in expressing mood and condition, answering the question How? = Hogy?

But first let’s see another case in connection with a purpose or a reason. The base for that could be the question word ’Why?’, whose equivalent is Miért? That is, the question word Mi? takes the suffix -ért, whose meaning is the same as the preposition for.

So we’ve arrived at the end of this topic (adverbs of time). Below you see a summary with the names of the cases. However, we’re still talking about TIME in the following entries, too. Expressing time, date and so on…

Hungarian has at least four postpositions to express something in progress, something happening during a specific moment. Here they are: KÖZBEN, ALATT, SORÁN, FOLYAMÁN. They’re equivalents to during, in the course of.

This question word goes like this: the interrogative word ’Mi?’ takes the adverb of time óta, that is:

MIÓTA?

The answer is not evident in all cases: it is formed with óta, but also with the suffixes -e, -ja equal to for, since. And as usual, the definite pronouns az, ez can be paired with óta.

Mióta vagy itt? – How long have you been here?
Két hete. – For two weeks.
Három napja. – For three days.
Egy órája. – For an hour.
Egy éve. – For a year.
Régóta. – For a long time.
Jó ideje. – For a while.

Azóta, hogy elmondta…Since he told me about…

Amióta idejött, egész nap alszik.Since he came here, he’s been sleeping all day long.

Attention! When you ask ’From when to when?’, Hungarian can say Mettől meddig?

Mettől meddig maradsz Pécsen? – How long are you staying in Pécs?
Hétfőtől péntekig. – From Monday to Friday.
Kettőtől ötig. – From two to five.Amíg szükséges. – Until it’s necessary.